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Scuderia Ferrari is the division of the Ferrari automobile company concerned with racing; Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro is the full name of the Ferrari Formula One racing team. Ferrari's racing division has recently devoted all of its attention and funding to F1, so this article concerns the history of both Enzo Ferrari's Scuderia and the Ferrari F1 team. Ferrari first competed in F1 in 1950 (the team's first F1 car was the Tipo 125 F1), making it the oldest team left in the championship, not to mention the most successful. The team's current drivers are Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello and its test driver is Luca Badoer. The team principal is Jean Todt and technical director is Ross Brawn. Ferrari is one of four F1 teams currently using Bridgestone tires (the remainder use Michelins). The team's numerous and ardent Italian fans have come to be known as tifosi. Scuderia Ferrari is Italian for "Ferrari Stable," though it is liberally translated as "Team Ferrari."
WilliamsF1, formerly Williams Grand Prix Engineering, is a Formula One racing team formed and run by Frank Williams and Patrick Head. Frank Williams founded the team as it currently stands in 1977 after two unsuccessful attempts at managing Formula One teams of the same name. The team has been highly successful throughout the 1980s and 1990s and remains a member of F1's Big Three (the other two being Ferrari and McLaren). They won their first FIA Formula 1 World Championship with Australian Alan Jones in 1980. Then followed Keke Rosberg's Championship in 1982. Since then Nelson Piquet (1987), Nigel Mansell (1992), Alain Prost (1993), Damon Hill (1996) and Jacques Villeneuve (1997) have all won the World Driver's Championship for the team. The last 4 Championships were won with the dominant Renault V10 engine of the 1990s. The team is famous for placing more significance on the World Constructor's Championship rather than the Driver's Championship and this is reflected in their results with 9 Constructor's Titles but only 7 Driver's Titles. The team's darkest hour was probably the weekend of the San Marino GP at Imola in 1994. That weekend, the great Ayrton Senna was killed in only his third race with the Rothmans Williams Renault team. David Coulthard and Nigel Mansell alternated in substituting for Senna later in the year and the team, despite this tragedy managed to win the Constructor's Title and Damon Hill controversially lost the Driver's Championship by only one point in the final race in Adelaide, Australia. The team has recently signed a long-term deal to use BMW engines and expertise until 2009. Since starting this relationship in 2000, the BMW WilliamsF1 team has won 9 races with Juan Pablo Montoya's recent victory at the German GP at the Hockenheimring being the latest.
McLaren, founded by Bruce McLaren (1937-1970) and currently managed by Ron Dennis, is a Formula One racing team based in Woking, England. It has been one of the most successful teams in Formula One, winning more Grands Prix than any constructor save Ferrari, and numerous World Driver's and World Constructor's Championships. The McLaren F1 team we know today resulted from a merger of the McLaren team and Ron Dennis' personal F1 team Project 4 in 1981. This had caused some confusion among fans of the sport, as all McLaren cars since 1981 have carried the designation M/P4-xx. In this case the 4 comes from Project 4, and has no relation to the generation of chassis. The most successful period in McLaren's history came under the early leadership of Ron Dennis. John Barnard designed the revolutionary M/P4-1 chassis, the first F1 chassis made entirely of carbon-fiber composites, which when mated to the TAG/Porsche turbo engine proved very strong. A succession of strong drivers helped, with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Keke Rosberg, and Stephan Johanssen driving for the team in this period. McLaren-Porsche won the Constructors title in 1984 (with Lauda taking the Driver's crown), and 1985 (with Prost winning his first World Title), and Prost took the driver's title again in 1986. After losing the previous two Constructors titles to Williams in 1986 and 1987, McLaren was able to convince Honda to switch its backing from Williams starting in 1988. The McLaren-Honda won an amazing 15 of 16 races that year, achieving the greatest winning percentage of a season in Formula One's modern history. Ayrton Senna took the driver's title that season, his first with the Woking marque. The next year, using a new 3.5L atmospheric engine designed by Honda, McLaren again won both titles, Alain Prost clinching it in Japan after a highly-controversial collision with his teammate Senna. The was the culmination of a violent feud between the two men, and saw Prost leave for Ferrari in 1990. Nevertheless, McLaren continued to dominate Formula One for the next two seasons, Senna winning the WDC in 1990 and 1991, and McLaren taking the constructors title in both of those years, new teammate Gerhard Berger helping to ensure this double success. From 1992 onwards, McLaren fell into a decline. After the thorough dominance of the Renault-powered Williams in 1992, Honda left Formula One. While the Ford engines proved suitable in the hands of Senna, American Michael Andretti was a disaster, scoring only a handful of points and was replaced before the end of the year by Finnish youngster Mika Hakkinen. In 1994, Senna departed for Williams, and perpetual journeyman Mark Blundell joined Hakkinen in new Peugeot-powered cars. The results were unimpressive, and Peugeot was dropped after a single year to bring on promising returner's Mercedes-Benz. But 1995 was even worse than 1994, the radical M/P4-10 proving to be too heavy and slow, and former champion Nigel Mansell proving to be too wide to fit into the car! While Williams dominated F1 in 1996 and 1997, McLaren made slow, careful strides with it's Mercedes engine and drivers Hakkinen and David Coulthard. With the temporary withdrawal of Renault at the end of 1997, McLaren was perfectly positioned to strike, Hakkinen taking the driver's title in 1998 and 1999, and McLaren the Constructors cup in 1998. 2000 was another closely-fought season, but ultimately Ferrari's Michael Schumacher prevailed...a position the German champion has yet to relinquish. Since 2000, McLaren has struggled somewhat to regain it's place at the top of Formula One. Mika Hakkinen's surprise 'sabbatical' (which turned into retirement) in 2002 opened the way for countryman Kimi Raikkonen to take his place. McLaren has only captured 3 wins since that date...a single win at Monaco in 2002 to Coulthard, and two wins in 2003, one for Coulthard at Australia, and one for Raikkonen at Malaysia. The team was severely hampered in 2003 by development of the M/P4-18, a radical new design which never raced in anger, forcing the team to use the year-old M/P4-17D, a very severe handicap in modern Formula One racing. Its drivers for the 2004 season are David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen, driving M/P4-19's. Juan Pablo Montoya will join McLaren in 2005 driving alongside Raikkonen.
Renault Sport (also known as Renault F1) was a Formula One racing team in the late 1970s and early 1980s that made a comeback to the sport in 2002. Renault began its involvement in F1 during the last 5 races of 1977 with Jean-Pierre Jabouille in its only car. The Renault RS01 was well known for its 1.5 liter turbocharged engine, the first regularly used turbo engine in F1 history. Jabouille's car and engine proved highly unreliable and became something of a joke during its first races, failing to finish any of its races. The following year was hardly better, characterized by 4 consecutive retirements caused by blown engines, but near the end of the year the team showed signs of success. Twice, the RS01 was 3rd on the grid and while finishing was still something of an issue, it managed to finish its first race on the lead lap at Watkins Glen near the end of 1978, giving the team a 4th place finish and its first F1 points. Expanding to 2 drivers with Rene Arnoux joining Jabouille in 1979, the team continued to struggle although Jabouille earned a pole position at South Africa. By mid-season, both drivers had new cars, the RS10, and at the French Grand Prix in 1979 the team legitimized itself with a brilliant performance in a classic race. The two Renaults were on the front row in qualifying, and pole-sitter Jabouille won the race, the first driver in a turbo-charged car to do so, while Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve were involved in an extremely competitive duel for second, Arnoux narrowly getting beaten to the line but getting a career best third. While Jabouille ran into hard times after that race, Arnoux finished a career high 2nd at Silverstone in the following race and then repeated that at the Glen, proving it wasn't a fluke. A Renault team returned to F1 in 2002, purchasing the former Benetton team. Its current management includes CEO Patrick Faure, managing director Flavio Briatore, and technical director Bob Bell. The reincarnated Renault finished 4th, albeit a distant fourth, in its first year back, relying on young drivers Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button doing a solid job with the team. Button was replaced by young Spaniard Fernando Alonso in 2003. The team was a much more competitive 4th in the constructors standings, with a car renowned for its launch control and its great handling. Alonso was sensational behind the wheel of his Renault that season, becoming the youngest driver to win a pole position (in Malaysia) and a race (in Hungary). In 2004, after five races, Trulli and Alonso are tied at 21 points each and the team is second with 42 points.
British American Racing (BAR) is a Formula One racing team which entered the sport in 1999. The team is named after the British American Tobacco Company, aka BAT, which owns and sponsors the team with its Lucky Strike brand. BAT Industries had long been involved in Formula One for many years, with several of its companies adorning the bodies of F1 cars. In 1997, the corporation was convinced by Craig Pollock to purchase a Formula One team. This team would be Tyrrell, and BAT and Pollock would use 30,000,000GBP (approximately $47 million U.S.) to acquire the team during the offseason of that year. The team officially was still Tyrrell in 1998 before it became BAR the following year. Pollock was the team's principal and was able to lure World Champion Jacques Villeneuve away from Williams for the 1999 season with a lucrative contract. Pollock had managed him throughout his racing career so perhaps it was only natural that he signed on. Joined by F1 rookie Ricardo Zonta, Pollock bragged about the team's success in its maiden year. However, the team was an outright disaster and failed to score a point in the constructors championship, Minardi was even able to outscore them. Villeneuve started the year with 11 straight DNF's, and only had a best finish of 8th, while Zonta missed 3 races to injury and managed only a best of 8th himself. Adding insult to injury, figuratively speaking, Mika Salo filled in for Zonta while he was hurt and provided the team's best finish of 7th. Running on Supertec engines (rebadged Renault engines) in 1999, it still managed to get a contract to run Honda engines in 2000 despite team struggles. The new Honda driven cars did show improvement, proving to be more reliable and slightly more competitive, but the team only had a best finish of 4th. While it was a marked improvement on its first year, with the team finishing tied for 4th in the points, it was still not the kind of year envisioned by team owners. Villeneuve reached the podium twice in 2001 for BAR, but neither he nor new teammate Olivier Panis did enough for the team, and it lead to the sacking of Pollock from the team. David Richards has run the team since 2002 but the story has been the same for BAR, with Villeneuve still struggling to score points and Panis and later Jenson Button doing the same. Villeneuve's failure to produce eventually led to him being replaced at the end of 2003 by Japanese driver Takuma Sato. Early in 2004, the team saw up upswing in its fortunes, with Button scoring consecutive podium finishes at the Grands Prix of Malaysia, Bahrain and San Marino (also their first pole position), the first for the team since Villeneuve's in 2001.
Sauber, founded and managed by Peter Sauber, is a Formula One team based in Hinwil, Switzerland. The team's first Formula One season was in 1993. It has close ties with Ferrari. Before the engagement in Formula One, Sauber participated in some other racings such as the Swiss and international sportscars championship or the 24 hours of Le Mans. The first Sauber car C1 was built in 1970.
Jaguar Cars is a British automobile manufacturer. Founded in 1922 as the Swallow Sidecar Company by William Lyons, it was renamed Jaguar in 1935. The company is owned by the Ford Motor Company. Jaguar is known for its luxury saloons and sports cars, market segments it has been in since the 1930s. The company was independent until it became part of the nationally-owned British Motor Corporation in 1966. In 1984 it was floated as a separate company on the stock market -- one of the Thatcher government's many privatizations -- only to be taken over by Ford in 1989-1990. In 1999 it was made part of Ford's new Premier Automotive Group along with Aston Martin, Land Rover, Volvo and Lincoln. Ford took over Jackie Stewart's Stewart-Ford Formula One team in June 1999, which was renamed Jaguar for the 2000 season. The team has participated in the F1 World Championship each year since. The team was headed for a period by Bobby Rahal, then by Niki Lauda. In a November 2002 restructuring, Lauda and around 70 other staff were made redundant. At the start of the 2003, the drivers were Mark Webber and Antonio Pizzonia. Engines are inevitably supplied by Ford. Pizzonia was replaced by Minardi's Justin Wilson midway through the season.
Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent company in 1937. Although the founding family name is Toyoda, the company name was changed to:
Signify the separation of the founders' work life from home life;
Simplify the pronunciation, and
Give the company an auspicious beginning. Toyota is considered luckier than Toyoda due to the fact that eight is a lucky number, and is the number of strokes it takes to write Toyota in Katakana. During the Pacific War the company was dedicated to truck production for the Imperial Army. Because of severe shortages in Japan, military trucks were kept as simple as possible. For example, the trucks had only one headlight on the center of the hood. Fortunately for Toyota, the war ended shortly before a scheduled allied bombing run on the Toyota factories in Aichi. Toyota has factories all over the world, manufacturing or assembling vehicles for local markets, including its most popular model, the Corolla. Toyota has manufacturing or assembly plants in the United States, where it builds more cars than Ford, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and France. Cars from these plants are often exported to other countries. For example, the South African-built Toyota Corolla is exported to Australia, while the Australian-built Camry is exported (in left hand drive) to countries in the Middle East. Between 1997 and 2000, the number one selling car in the U.S. was the Toyota Camry. It was dethroned in 2001 by the Honda Accord, only to regain its place in 2002, with the introduction of a redesigned model.
Jordan Grand Prix is a Formula One racing team that debuted in 1991. The team is named after Irish-born owner Edmund "Eddie" Jordan. Jordan had a brief stint as a race driver in the late 1970's and ran a successful Formula Three and Formula 3000 team, called Eddie Jordan Racing, in the late 1980's. His team won the F3000 driver's championship with future Formula One star Jean Alesi in 1989. Jordan re-organized in 2002, with Fisichella returning and Takuma Sato joining the team, thanks in no small part to Honda's support of the team. Neither driver was particularly competitive, however. The fact the team finished 6th had as much to do with the team tending to be in the right place at the right time more often than not. Their 2003 season was one of the weirdest by a team in recent Formula One history. Only Minardi had a worse year than Jordan among teams, yet Jordan was able to celebrate a fourth career victory. The win came under extraordinary circumstances in a rain-shortened Brazilian Grand Prix, where Giancarlo Fisichella was initially ruled to finish a still remarkable second after the race was red flagged and stopped. An Federation Internationale de l'Automobile inquiry several days later led to Fisichella being officially declared the winner of his first F1 race. Aside from the unlikely win, neither Fisichella or new teammate Ralph Firman was able to have any sort of success in their Jordans, which were powered by Ford once again. As of 2004, Jordan is struggling financially, and their status for the future is questionable. There is some hope for the season, as the team will field two promising young drivers, German Nick Heidfeld, who came from Sauber, and Italian rookie Giorgio Pantano.
Minardi is a automobile racing team, founded in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi It has competed in the Formula One World Championship since 1985, though with little success. Despite this, it has a small but loyal following of fans. Since it started racing in F1, the team has scored all of 31 championship points (although under the modern points system this number would almost quadruple), over half of them taken by the team's first driver, Pierluigi Martini. Martini also recorded the team's only front row start and actually led a lap during a race in 1989. In spite of this, the team has never been on a podium in its history, only managing a best place of 4th three times: Martini two times in 1991 and Christian Fittipaldi in 1993. The team, near collapse, was purchased by Australian businessman Paul Stoddart in early 2002. Since taking over as team principal, Stoddart has been campaigning for reduced costs in the sport. He has appealed to the competing car manufacturers for an agreement where the independent (and, on the whole, financially weaker) teams in Formula One would get cheaper engine deals then at present. In return, the team principals who would benefit from this would support the works teams when it came to opposing new rule changes (enforced by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile), (e.g. the proposed ban on traction control). So far, Stoddart's efforts have failed to produce such a deal. Before the start of the 2004 season, he threatened to withdraw his support against the ban on traction control. Minardi is represented in 2004 by two rookies, Italian Gianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni and Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner. During the year, they will be celebrating their 20th season in F1. Baumgartner celebrated it by scoring Minardi's first point in over 2 years at the United States Grand Prix. Baumgartner is also the first Hungrarian to ever score a point in a World Championship F1 race. Despite their reputation as a backmarking team, more than a handful of future stars have raced for them in recent years. Grand Prix winners Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli, and Fernando Alonso, along with promising Australian Mark Webber, have all raced for the team within the last 10 years.
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